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John A Daly

Broken Slate

Synopsis

Thirty years ago, Sean Coleman’s father abandoned his family in the Colorado mountain town of Winston, and was never heard from again. The reason for his disappearance was always a mystery, but a lifetime of blaming himself put Sean on a rough, dark path that took him years to return from.
Now content in his life, Sean receives unexpected word that his father has finally reemerged, on the other side of the country in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. . .as a murder victim.
At the wishes of his sister, Sean flies out to retrieve his body, and hopefully find answers to why his father left, and the life he went on to lead.
What he discovers is a second family, a web of deception, and a brutal killer who’s still on the loose. . .and isn’t finished killing.

Author Biography

A lifelong Coloradoan, along with his wife and two children, John Daly graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in business administration and computer information systems.
With a thirst for creative expression that went beyond the logic and absolutes of computer programming, John developed an interest in writing.
He currently writes political, cultural, and media analysis columns for a national news website.

Author Insight

The Sloppy Art of Survival

In junior high, I read 'Deathwatch' by Robb White. It was a gritty tale of survival that centered around a young protagonist named Ben. Ben fought to stay alive in the brutally hot Mojave desert as a mad-man kept him pinned down with a high-powered rifle. White wrote the book through the eyes of this character whose innocence, ill-preparedness, and raw desperation were easily identified with by the reader. The reader is right there beside Ben, making the same mistakes under terrible circumstances, as he clumsily and savagely fights to stay alive. As a thriller author, I try hard to develop that same sense of sloppy survival in my work. To me, a protagonist that is in control and comes into situations with an edge over his or her adversaries isn’t quite as interesting…or quite as real. In real life, impulsiveness is a more genuine reaction to adversity than calm, rational thinking.

Book Excerpt

Broken Slate

The board was too big and heavy to use as an effective weapon, and the thought of pulling it over the top of their bodies to hide behind lasted only seconds.

The beam of light bounced off of something reflective just above the mound of sand providing Jack’s only cover—another empty beer bottle. A small crab poked at its lip with its pincher.

When the light left the bottle, Jack grabbed its neck. When he sensed his pursuer was within a few feet, the man’s trudging steps steady and unaware, he lunged to his knees with a snarl and threw the bottle like a battle-axe directly at the man’s face.

The bottle exploded on impact and the flashlight fell to the ground. The man wobbled backwards, clutching his nose. Jack tackled him to the sand before he could get off a shot. He blindly punched the man’s face and gouged what he thought were the man’s eyes, and then kneed his groin. The man doubled over and Jack struck his head with fist after fist. The man became limp, sagging to the sand.

Jack’s fingers traced the man’s left arm up to his hand, then did the same with his right. The gun was in neither. He found the flashlight and lit up the small section of beach around his body, searching the sand. The gun was nowhere. “Shit!”